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Tactician
A tactician's edge is his ablility to anticpate and plan for the moves his enemy will likely make. Formally trained in the art of fencing, the tactician makes for a worthy adversary in melee combat without giving up much in areas that require a more active mind. Tacticians begin with a 3% (up to 9% with class-enhancing skills) bonus to both preventing and performing parries. -- In game description Strategy and Builds The Tactictian is an interesting class whose bonuses really focus it as a defensive character, but unlike the guardian which uses it's bonuses in shields, Tactitians instead recieve a parry bonus which opens up some interesting build opportunities. This bonus also helps prevent parries, offering some limited offensive boosting. 'Weapons to use:' Tacticians really excel in melee roles that allow them to parry. Certain weapons are better or worse for this because of the stats that make parrying(your main class feature) work. 'Crushing' Crushing weapons are really something you shouldn't focus on as a Tactitian mainly because they are weapons that focus on max damage and because they can gain accuracy from strength. Pumping strength to insane levels is really the only way to get the most out of this weapon category, but parrying requires us to lean heavily into dexterity. Not a good idea for optimization. About the only good thing about Crusher Tactitians is that they have very good Parry prevention because of class bonus and an absurdly high strength. I don't believe this is an even tradeoff for your ability to parry well, though. 'Slashing' Slashing weapons are for tactions that want to deal a little more damage. Accuracy needs make slashing users pump their dexterity to decent levels and they still need strength for hitting max damage which boosts their ability to prevent parries(something they gain a bonus to). This balanced str and dex also makes them decent shield users if they want to add more defense to their character. 'Piercing' Piercing weapons need no str, only dex. This makes them very awesome for someone who needs dex for their primary class feature! The damage is more consistent, but less awesome than slashers. Once the desired amount of Dex is reached, you really should pump the rest of your melee points into str for parry prevention which slashers will be better at, but you will be better at parrying. Dex also makes you prevent parries and blocks, which is awesome. 'Two Handed, Dual Wielding, or Shield?' Tactitians can really do whatever they want here. It just depends on whether you're going to be defense or offense. Defense types will obviously go shield, and there is no inherent disadvantage to going either Dual Wielding or Two Handed. They are very even in terms of performance. 'But what about Staves?' Parrying is the only defensive option that casters really have in terms of melee combat, and it's possible to build a Tactitian spellcaster with that in mind. Because of the high dex requirement of parrying you can forget about using gems with high energy costs. You just cant really afford it until late in the game. This means go for all the high mana cost gems and pump mana. Because of dex you can also hit the enemy in melee, effectively giving your caster a melee damage supplement to gem damage. Staves are crushing as well which opens up some cool stuns that can be very viscious when combo'd with gem stuns to stun lock opponents in battle. Because of low str though, don't expect to prevent a lot of parries and blocks(though your class bonus will make you better than any other caster at this. Stopping shield reflects and stuns is a good thing). And also dont expect your staff damage to be anything but random. The build is unorthodox, but interesting. 'Bows too!?' Hell no. '...Whips?' Very not recommended. 'Strategies for stats:' Because of the very light penalties and bonuses to stat skills, Tactitians are fairly flexible for a melee oriented fighter in how they level up. Penalties in Defense and Magic of -9% is very strange, but not really severe. Likewise, +10% to melee and Recovery aren't really superpowered. Heres more or less the stat priorities for Tactitians. 'MELEE' *Strength - You want some if you go slashing or a lot if you go crushing. Piercers will get some at the end of their careers for more parry and block prevention. Crushers may be able to go shield to buff up their weaker defenses since this helps with shields. *Dexterity - Hell yes. This fuels your parrying sexiness. Slashers need a good bit of it, Piercers need a lot more. This also is one of the stats that makes you prevent enemy parries and blocks. Preventing parries is something you want to improve as a Tactitian and will help increase your overall melee damage. *Physical Stamina - More energy. You may or may not want some points in here near the end of your career to broaden your gem usage capabilities, but it is very dependant on your specific strategy. 'DEFENSE' *Agility - You'd best get a lot of this as this is the second stat that makes your parrying better, which is kind of the point of being a tactitian. This is also the stat that makes you dodge more, which is another great reason to take it. *Contravention - This is equally as important as Agility, actually. there are a lot of spells flying around in this game and you'd best have some defense against them. Besides using a shield, nothing else will help protect against magic. *Durability - Everyone needs a decent bit of HP, though you'll find this stat isn't as important as the other two and can be leveled a bit later as well. No need to rush this one. 'MAGIC' *Intelligence - If you're going to be mixing in direct damage gems into your style this is something you want, otherwise skip it entirely. *Concentration - If you are using any gems which target or affect others frequently, such as DoT's and negative auras, you really need a decent chunk of this stat. those who focus only on self targeting or friendly targeting spells as well as taunts don't need this. *Mental Stamina - You may actually want some mana later in the game, but it is dependent on what gems you are using. No need to rush this skill unless you went with the unorthodox build above. Then you'll need some of this sooner rather than later or else specialize more on recovery. 'RECOVERY' *Physical Resilience - You may want some later in your career if you make frequent use of energy consuming gems. *Mental Resilience - Same as above really *Regeneration - HP is universal. unless you use a lot of healing gems, this is something everyone should have just a little bit invested into. 'Gem Strategies:' In my opinion because of the amount of levels needed in melee and defense to make full use of a tactitian's bonuses, tactitians dont really excel as casters without some serious custom tweaking to your build. You won't have really high max mana or energy as a Tactition, and staves aren't an attractive weapon option for most of them. Limited levels left over for the Magic stats makes focusing on Concentration a much more viable option than splitting with Intelligence meaning that DD gems aren't as attractive since they require decent Intelligence as well. There are some gems that can do well even under these circumstances though and remember that all this gemcasting is there just to support and/or supplement your weapon attacks. 'Defensive/Tank' Aura Gems cost no mana or energy to use and are useful as hell. Some Concentration will help to make them affect creatures more steadily if you use negative auras, but you don't need a lot. If you go white HoT's for even and steady mana/energy consumption, you can stretch your supply. Between defensive auras and infrequent heals, this is a manageable gem combo. Think Grey, Black, Blue and White for Auras. 'Utility' Taunts require no concentration due to aggravation skill being so powerful, but may require a little bit of mana and energy to use continuously. Likewise, you can be a bit unpredictable witha few more miscellanious blue gems like the various clones(ally clones are easiest to coordinate) and defensive with redirects or reflects. All of these are relatively low cost and won't require a lick of Concentration. 'Effect over time ' Combo of green HoT gems with mana cantrips and mana regens make for a good staying power that requires no Concentration. If you do have some though, you can add some green DoT's and auras to the mix for an effective and cost efficient gem combo. 'Staff Users Notes' Staff users can circumvent a lot of pain with cost reduction from various skills and should go DoT as their main form of damage. Because of Higher levels in magic, they can afford to get some mana as well. Either focus on Mana only gems or get the blue balance gems to keep up your energy reserves. Gems that give profitable returns on energy to mana conversion can be added to give you basically unlimited mana and energy. You can also throw in appropriate energy and mana cantrips as needed. If you want more than just DoT's in your arsenal, throw in some Grey defensive gems to really hinder your enemies while they die not so slow deaths. Solo Play If you want to solo as a tactitian, take advantage of your stat array and go piercing/shield for maximum defense. Use Grey gems and auras to stops negative statuses and maybe get some defensive buffs to reduce damage taken. You'll need a few HoT's for the bosses and just a little DoT for faster killing. 'Against Boss Enemies' Tetsudo and the Crossed spear invincibility give you a huge advantage in the early stages of a battle that you want to ride out till the finish. Use small incremental uses of HoT's to keep you topped off throughout the fight after your super defenses are spent. During boss fights you will want to spam your heals as fast as possible to keep them coming. Save mana for heals, not damage unless you find yourself in a position of almost killing it while your HP is high. Hopefully your defensive auras will keep you from having to heal too often. Against Bosses it isn't uncommon for you to be able to last until your Crossed spear recharges, giving you a second brief invincibility. 'Against Normal Enemies ' you won't usually need heals. use your DoT's to supplement your melee and grind quickly. Keep the application of these gems steady as you ideally want to keep your mana/energy flow steady without having to spend time waiting for a recharge. 'Additional Tips and Strategies' Gem Handling is an essential skill while soloing. Multiple copies of gems saves you from having to get lots of different types(and using up xp to keep them all current), as well as giving you a chance of starting battle with your auras in place, saving valuable set up time. You might opt to go dual wielding when not fighting bosses after level 20 to increase killing speed. It has a lot of skill synergy with shield, requiring only that you get the dual wielding skill itself. Dual Parry can fortunately be used by shield users and dual wielders. Going Two handed requires the two hand skill and mirrored blade to be as effective. Group Play You really have to decide whether you are a melee striker type with dual wield or Two hand, or tank with the shield. Either way, you want some group auras in your arsenal. You don't have much mana or energy to burn, so go for something sustainable. The green magic combo above is pretty perfect, though you may tweak it for more healing or damage depending on your exact party make up. The tank of course needs taunts. Category:Classes